Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government in the past two years how many children who have arrived in the UK unaccompanied and seeking asylum, who have had their age verified, and who have been placed in hotels provided by the Home Office while waiting to be placed with a local authority, were aged: (1) under 5 years, (2) 5 years old, (3) 6 years old, (4) 7 years old, (5) 8 years old, (6) 9 years old, (7) 10 years old, (8) 11 years old, (9) 12 years old, (10) 13 years old, (11) 14 years old, (12) 15 years old, and (13) 16 years old.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
We take the safety and welfare of those in our care, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, extremely seriously. Any unaccompanied child who enters the UK via small boat and claims to be under the age of 18 will go through an age assessment process, unless they are clearly a child. Following an initial age determination which is undertaken by Home Office officials, anyone accepted as under 18 years old will be processed as a child. If officials cannot be sure a person is significantly over 18 years old, the Home Office will treat the person as a child pending further in-depth assessment.
We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotels are as safe and supported as possible as we seek urgent placements with a local authority. No individuals, apart from the unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, are residing at any of the hotels ring-fenced for children.
All individuals working directly with the young people accommodated at the hotels have Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks, and all those working and operating on the hotel sites have DBS clearance. The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) found that the young people accommodated at the hotels unanimously reported feeling happy and safe.
The data requested cannot be provided as it comes from live operational databases that have not been quality assured.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 20 July (HL9141), why they do not hold records that would enable them to answer parliamentary questions on the age of the youngest unaccompanied child seeking asylum that has been placed in a hotel.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
We take the safety and welfare of those in our care, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, extremely seriously. We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people in hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.
No individuals, apart from the unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, are residing at any of the hotels ring-fenced for children.
Children are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All contingency sites have security staff on site 24/7 and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.
All individuals working directly with the young people accommodated at the hotels have Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks, and all those working and operating on the hotel sites have DBS clearance. The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) found that the young people accommodated at the hotels unanimously reported feeling happy and safe.
We do hold records however, the data requested cannot be provided as it comes from live operational databases that have not been quality assured.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether it is their current policy to place unaccompanied children seeking asylum, who are waiting for placement with a local authority, in hotels; and, if so, how many are placed in hotels.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Hotel accommodation is a temporary means to accommodate the increased number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) arriving and is only ever a contingency option, not a long-term solution.
The high number of UASC arrivals, particularly as a result of small boat crossings, has placed unprecedented pressure on the National Transfer Scheme. Out of necessity we accommodated UASC on an emergency and temporary basis in hotels while placements with local authorities have been vigorously pursued. The High Court recently ruled that the routine and systematic use of hotels to accommodate UASC is unlawful, and we are working at pace with Kent County Council, other government departments and local authorities across the UK to ensure suitable local authority placements are provided for unaccompanied children urgently and sustainably.
We provided local authorities with children’s services £15,000 for every eligible young person taken into their care from a Home Office-run hotel dedicated to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children or the Kent Reception and Safe Care Service by the end of February 2023. As a result of incentivised funding, we were able to temporarily reduce the number of unaccompanied children accommodated in hotels to zero. This was the second funding pilot run by the Home Office in 2022/23 to help local authorities invest in longer term infrastructure for accommodating and supporting unaccompanied children. Ending the use of hotels for UASC is an absolute priority and we will continue to work around the clock with councils to increase the number of care placements available.
The data requested cannot be provided as it comes from live operational databases that have not been quality assured.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied children seeking asylum have been housed in Home Office temporary hotels in the past 18 months; and of those, how many were aged between (1) five and nine, (2) 10 and 13, and (3) 14 and 16.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
We take the safety of those in our care seriously. We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people in hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.
Young people are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All contingency sites have security staff on site 24/7 and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.
The data requested cannot be provided as it comes from live operational databases that have not been quality assured.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the age of youngest unaccompanied child seeking asylum who has been housed in a Home Office temporary hotel; and how long that child was housed there for.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
We take the safety of those in our care seriously. We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people in hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority. Young people are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All contingency sites have security staff on site 24/7 and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.
Between 1 July 2021 and 31 March 2023, the NTS transferred 4,875 children to local authorities with children’s services which is over six times the number of transfers in the same time frame in previous years (between October 2019 – June 2021 there were 793 transfers).Since 15 February 2022, all local authorities with children’s services in the UK have been directed to participate in the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) to ensure UASC receive the critical care they need. We have also offered incentivised funding to local authorities to move these young people in the care system.
The data requested cannot be provided as it comes from live operational databases that have not been quality assured.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether, since 7 March, any individuals entering the UK to seek asylum by irregular routes have been held in detention; and if so, how many.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office does not publish data on people entering detention broken down by arrival route.
The Home Office publishes statistics on people entering detention in the Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release on gov.uk. The number of people entering detention can be broken down by asylum and non-asylum-related cases in table Det_01 of the detention summary tables.
The latest data relates to the end of March 2023. Data up to the end of June 2023 will be published on 24 August 2023.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 10 May (HL Deb, col 1924), whether unaccompanied children seeking asylum who are to be detained under the Illegal Migration Bill are to be placed in "age appropriate accommodation", where these age-appropriate accommodation will be; what services will be provided in them, and by whom, that make them age appropriate; who will be responsible for the children placed there in terms of the duties in section 17 and 20 of the Children Act 1989; and who will have ultimate responsibility for running these accommodation.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The welfare of those who are detained is taken seriously. Where a decision is made to remove an unaccompanied child under 18, detention will be for the shortest possible time. The detention powers within the Bill can only be exercised to detain an unaccompanied child in specific circumstances that will be set out in regulations.
We will build upon our current detention facilities to ensure they provide appropriate, safe and secure accommodation. This includes working closely with the Department of Education and local authorities to ensure there are proper support provisions in detention for unaccompanied children.
The Home Secretary is responsible for all people in detention, including the day-to-day care of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 10 May (HL Deb, col 1924), what evidence they have collected since 2014 that leads them to conclude that excluding children from immigration detention would "incentivise the people smugglers" to target children to smuggle to the UK.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The purpose of the Illegal Migration Bill is to prevent and deter all unlawful migration, and in particular migration by unsafe and illegal routes. Those who arrive illegally will be liable to detention and will be swiftly removed to their home country or to a safe third country.
The organised people smuggling criminal gangs can be expected to exploit any exceptions or loopholes in the scheme provided for in the Bill, a point made by a number of noble Lords at Second Reading. An economic impact assessment will be published for the Bill in due course.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the percentage of total asylum claims for unaccompanied children seeking asylum for each of the years 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office publishes data on the proportion of total asylum applications lodged in the UK that were made by UASCs in each year in the Immigration system statistics quarterly release on gov.uk. These statistics are published in the Asy_01a table of the asylum summary tables which is attached.
Further information on these statistics can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook tab. The latest data relates to the end of December 2022.
Data for January to March 2023, is due to be published 25th May 2023.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which safe third countries they have made an agreement with for the purposes of processing asylum claims for people coming to the UK via irregular routes, as outlined in the Illegal Migration Bill; and how many individuals are logistically possible to be processed in each in each of those countries in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
We have agreed a Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda, whereby those arriving in the UK through dangerous, unnecessary, and illegal methods may be relocated there to have their asylum claim considered. This arrangement is uncapped.
We are unable to comment on discussions or negotiations that may be being held with other countries.